At times the Dunhill Links resembled the Northern Irish Open on Saturday,
confirming the province’s extraordinary elevation to golf’s top table.

Graeme McDowell recovered the touch of a US Open champion through his 67 at St Andrews, while Rory McIlroy’s 66 ensured the presence of Holywood, Belfast, in a field studded with Michael Douglas, Hugh Grant, and other staples of Hollywood, California. But it was a less celebrated Ulsterman, in Ballmoney’s Michael Hoey, who left his pursuers flailing after a consummate 66 at Carnoustie that lifted him to 18 under par, three strokes clear.

In dank conditions in Scotland, Hoey’s surge allowed him to eclipse even the remarkable exploits of Luke Donald and Simon Dyson, who equalled McIlroy’s course record at St Andrews with 63s apiece.

Hoey is unused to keeping such exalted company as Donald, the world No 1, even though they played on the same victorious Walker Cup side as amateurs in 2001. While he won in Madeira in May, sealing his first professional title for two years, this was hardly the harbinger for him to dominate a tournament of this stature.

Hoey at least grew up with the best, having once enjoyed casual rounds alongside McIlroy at Shandon Park, on the outskirts of Belfast. But nothing in his nine-year European Tour career has prepared him for his task on Sunday, when he seeks to convert his advantage into a £513,000 winner’s cheque. The 32 year-old has established a formidable position, three ahead of McDowell by virtue of three successive 66s.

Clearly the Belfast water serves as some kind of elixir. Hoey appears blessed, too, with the type of blinkered mindset necessary to prevail. Even McDowell, managed by the same company, claimed not to know much of his stablemate, observing: “He’s a pretty unemotional type of guy, always ice-cold. He doesn’t get too excited about anything. But he has a huge amount of talent.”

Chasing him hard, though, is Donald, who underscored his talent for links golf with a nine-under round — containing not a single dropped shot — despite the capricious wind blowing in off the Firth of Tay. His metronomic brilliance is well-documented, but still his composure in the Fife murk was astounding. Indeed, his 18 unblemished holes on Saturday earned him a faintly awed embrace from playing partner Jamie Redknapp on the final green.

With the prize of winning money lists either side of the Atlantic in his sight, Donald plainly does not intend to lose momentum. His dominance in Europe’s Race to Dubai is all but impregnable, given he holds a lead of £1.4 million over McIlroy, and he has opened a gap of £44,000 over Webb Simpson on the PGA Tour by finishing joint third in the Tour Championship last Sunday.

Dyson, the self-effacing Yorkshireman who has streaked to prominence this season through his twin tour triumphs in Ireland and Holland, emulated the feat. Briefly it looked as if he would dip under 63, the mark set by McIlroy at last summer’s Open Championship, when he reached nine under at the 15th.

Not that he knew it in the pressure of the moment, but he had a putt at the last from the 15 feet to break the record, leaving the ball in the jaws. “I would have hit it harder if I had known,” he smiled. “But it’s a good name to share the record with.”

He disclosed that the secret to his recent rise lay in his eschewing the temptations of alcohol and excessive celebration. Understanding that he is to become a father in March, Dyson has made a pact with wife Lyndsey not to indulge, restricting himself to only one drink in the past 11 weeks. He is not about to be found in The Jigger Inn or One Golf Course, those famed hostelries in St Andrews, any time soon.

McIlroy also explained that he was resorting to some unusual measures in pursuit of perfection. Attempting to reawaken the inspiration behind his eight-stroke US Open win at Congressional, he has taken to honing his action with a cut-down lob wedge. The practice ritual — designed by Michael Bannon, his long-time coach, and which he is required to perform in front of a mirror — was intended, he said, to smooth out the plane of his swing.